Winning the Adult World Highland Championships for an amazing third year in a row at the weekend, David Wilton must regard the Cowal Highland Gathering as something of a second home nowadays.
The World Highland Dancing Championships are held at Cowal every year, attracting hundreds of top-class competitors from around the globe.
In the Adult section David completed an amazing clean sweep across all four dancing categories for which competitors are judged - he was awarded first in the Highland Fling, Sword Dance, Seann Truibhas and Reel.
When asked how he felt after he received his award, David said: “Amazing, absolutely amazing, I can’t really say much more than that word right now.”
The dancer from Forfar has had a stunning record at the World Highland Dancing Championships at Cowal. He won the Juvenile World Championship in 2004, then moved up to become Junior World Champion in 2005 and 2006, and has now taken the Adult World Championship in 2007, 2008 and 2009.
He even has a tattoo on his calf listing the successes so far up until this year’s competition - he’ll evidently be adding again to it soon.
When asked what the secret of his success was, he said: “Hard work from five years old, a good teacher and dedication. My mum’s my teacher, so that helps as well.”
On what goes into his success, David explained: “It started from when I was five, all the way all the way up. You need the right technique for positioning, and a nice look about you, you need to work on your hop from the beginning, but in a year I suppose that you’re looking at maybe an hour a day, five days a week.”
